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Health Insurance - Part 44

Find information about affordable health insurance plans

i recently resigned from my job and my new job does not offer a group health insurance so for the time-being, i will be signing up for COBRA from my old job. my wife and son have been overseas for the past 3 years and were not living with me so i did not bother to include them to my previous existing group health plan (BCBS MI). my wife and son plans to join me soon, probably within the month. to complicate matters, my wife is pregnant. BCBS have advised that I can only add them on in June or July during open enrollment. on top of that, she still needs to go through the 6-mos waiting period. this would obviously mean she won’t be getting any coverage well past her due date. the question is: is there any other way of going around this? can I add my spouse and son directly to COBRA on their date of arrival without waiting for open enrolloment?

We are not familiar with any way around this. Under Federal law, insurance companies are provided this open enrollment guideline for their protection – as well as the pre-existing waiting condition rights. If an employee could elect when to enroll dependents on a group plan, without any waiting periods, nobody would insure their dependents until they had a specific need for the insurance. Insurance premiums are high enough already.

Health-Care Reform … And the Statistics Show …

Where are people getting their information on health-care reform? MetLife, through the MetLife Study of Employer/Consumer Attitudes on Health Care, states that both consumers and businesses are turning to traditional media outlets. The vast majority of individuals (85%) and more than half of employers (56%) say they look to TV, radio, newspapers and magazines to stay informed about health-care reform.

However, more than half of larger employersâthose with 500 or more employeesâare also turning to their benefits brokers or consultants for information, more so than they use business (42%) or consumer media (37%) outlets, and much more often than they look to industry publications (32%).

Cadillac Tax Could Impact Non Cadillac Plans Too

Joe Paduda has written an excellent article – as usual – about the proposed tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans. The tax, which is part of the senate bill, would be levied on the portion of health insurance premiums that exceed a set annual amount ($8500 for individuals, and $23000 for families). It would be levied against the health insurance carriers, but would likely be passed along to employers in the form of higher premiums, much the way increasing health care costs result in higher premiums. The tax does not take into consideration the actual specifics of the benefits provided or the regional cost of health care. Joe makes

Health Insurance Only One of Many Costs for Health

Our bodies are costing us more and more according to the article “The Growing Price Tag on Your Waistline” by Kimberly Palmer and Sarah Baldauf found on finance.yahoo.com. The article points out a handful of ways that that our bodies are getting more expensive.

The first way is gym memberships and exercise equipment and their rising prices. Then there are diet plans and diet advice that millions pay for consistently. Airlines are charging more per ticket for obese passengers. Vices such as cigarettes and overeating not only cost money themselves, but add to our overall poor health which costs us. Compan

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